Four Trade Destinations For Kemba Walker

Four Trade Destinations For Kemba Walker

The perfect story of Kemba Walker’s return to Madison Square Garden will have an imperfect ending. New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters the Bronx native will be out of the rotation going forward. The move makes basketball sense, even if it sours the narrative of Walker’s homecoming quite a bit. The Knicks are downright awful defensively when he’s on the court and those stretches have lost the team games. There’s no path back to the court for Walker unless the injury bug strikes, and it seems logical that the Knicks would look for a trade partner.

Walker still has something to offer offensively as a great shooter, he’s shooting 41 percent on 5.1 attempts per game from deep. He can be a sixth man spark plug for the right team, as long as it is willing to deal with load managing Walker’s knees, a requirement at this point in his career. He’s only making $8 million this season, a far more moveable contract than when he was on a max deal. If the Knicks don’t want him, someone probably will. Here are four possible options.

Bleacher Report’s A. Sherrod Blakely is reporting that the Rockets may be interested in a Walker-for-John Wall swap. This makes a lot of basketball sense. Wall really wants to play this year and the Rockets have yet to adhere to that request. He’d have to exert effort on the defensive end for the first time in years, but he’d be great at setting the table offensively and can bail the Knicks out when Julius Randle isn’t on, which is becoming more common this year. The problem here is money. Wall is making $44 million this season, and the Knicks would need to match salaries in order to trade for him. Walker and pieces won’t get it done financially. This would require a third team unless the Knicks are giving up key rotation pieces, which doesn’t seem likely.

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